In recent years, from the standpoint of global environment protection, improvement of fuel efficiency of automobiles is an important issue. Therefore, there is a growing tendency to reduce car body weight by increasing the tensile strength and reducing the thickness of the steel sheet composing a car. The increase of the tensile strength of the car body material contributes to the improvement of crush safety, so that high tensile strength steel sheets are increasingly used as car body materials. However, in general cases, the increase of the tensile strength of a steel sheet can result in the deterioration of the ductility of the steel sheet, or the deterioration of formability. Therefore, there is a demand for a galvanized steel sheet having high tensile strength and high formability, and excellent corrosion resistance.
High tensile strength galvanized steel sheets of the multiphase type such as DP (Dual Phase) steel composed of ferrite and martensite, and TRIP (Transformation Induced Plasticity) steel utilizing transformation induced plasticity of residual austenite have been developed to satisfy such a demand.
“Tetsu To Hagane (Irong and Steel),” Vol. 83 (1997), p. 748 describes that ferrite-martensite two-phase steel exhibits excellent anti-crush properties. However, the ferrite-martensite two-phase steel has an r value of less than 1.0, and low deep drawability, so that its applicability is limited.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 11-279691 proposes a high tensile strength galvannealed steel sheet with good formability, the steel sheet containing, in terms of % by mass, 0.05 to 0.15% of C, 0.3 to 1.5% of Si, 1.5 to 2.8% of Mn, 0.03% or less of P, 0.02% or less of S, 0.005 to 0.5% of Al, 0.0060% or less of N, the remainder being Fe and unavoidable impurities, the elemental composition satisfying (Mn %)/(C %)≧15 and (Si %)/(C %)≧4, and the steel sheet being composed of ferrite containing, in terms of volume fraction, 3 to 20% of martensite and residual austenite. However, these high tensile strength galvanized steel sheets of the composite structure type exhibit high elongation E1 as determined by uniaxial stretching, but have poor stretch-flangeability required for a hole expansion process and the like.
Therefore, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 6-93340 discloses a method for making a high tensile strength galvanized steel sheet with excellent stretch-flangeability. Under the method, a steel sheet composed of, in terms of % by mass, 0.02 to 0.30% of C, 1.5% or less of Si, 0.60 to 3.0% of Mn, 0.20% or less of P, 0.05% or less of S, 0.01 to 0.10% of Al, the remainder being Fe and unavoidable impurities, is subjected to hot rolling at a temperature not lower than the Ac3 transformation point, pickled and cold-rolled, and the steel sheet is heated and maintained at a temperature not lower than the recrystallization temperature and Ac1 transformation point on a continuous annealing galvanizing line. Subsequently, before immersion in a galvanizing bath, the steel sheet is rapidly cooled to the Ms point or lower thereby forming martensite partially or wholly in the steel sheet, and then heated to a temperature not lower than the Ms point and at least equal to the galvanizing bath temperature and galvannealing furnace temperature thereby forming partially or completely tempered martensite.
The high tensile strength galvanized steel sheet described in JP '340 provides excellent stretch-flangeability. However, the product of tensile strength TS and E1 as determined by uniaxial stretching, or the TS-E1 balance of the steel sheet is low. The ratio of yield strength YS to TS, or yield ratio YR (YS/TS) is high, which results in poor formability. In addition, the steel sheet has poor anti-crush properties which are necessary for securing crush safety.
It could therefore be helpful to provide a high tensile strength galvanized steel sheet with excellent formability and a method for making the same, the steel sheet providing a high TS-E1 balance, excellent stretch-flangeability, and a low YR. It could also be helpful to provide a high tensile strength galvanized steel sheet with excellent anti-crush properties and a method for making the same, the steel sheet providing a high TS-E1 balance and excellent stretch-flangeability.